Underlying a multitude of troubling issues is the matter of undue corporate power. The Supreme Court unloosed the dogs of this power with the Citizens United decision. This show looks at efforts to amend the Constitution to overturn this terrible decis…

A major new report on the use of torture was recently released. It is an unquestionably non-partisan report that raises deeply troubling questions about the status of America itself in the wake of the approval of the use of torture at the highest level…

Most Americans see money go from their pocket to…who knows where? Today’s guest is the National Priorities Projects’ Mattea Kramer, who leads their research program on the federal budget, spending and tax policy. From what she found, it turns out the…

Judy Wicks’ new book is Good Morning Beautiful Business; The Unexpected Journey of an Activist Entrepreneur and Local Economy Pioneer. It’s a new 21st century way of doing business. And in this discussion she describes a model both left and right can a…

It seems they exist in a world above everyone else. The big banks play by their own rules, which certainly appears to be greed pure and simple. Of course the rest of us pay the price. Dearly at that. Senior Fellow at the Campagin for America’s Future R…

They were performers, not philosophers, and maybe that’s why the impact they had on the current identity of the American political left can hardly be overstated. Purdue University political science professor Harry Targ talks about the significant impac…

There used to be momentum privatizing publuc utilities. But now it’s swinging back to public ownership and control. On part one, Slate columnist Matt Yglesias looks at what it means for the common good.And on part two, Ian Millhiser, Senior Constitutio…

The wealthiest Americans in the country have disproportionate influence over our nation’s leaders. Problem is, as F Scott Fitzgerald noted, the rich are different. Today’s guest, Professor Benjamin Page, is co-author of a new study of th…

America’s war on Iraq started ten years ago on March 19 Some four thousand Americans and well over a hundred thousand, possibly close to a million Iraqis died. On part one, journalist Greg Barrett talks about what he witnessed among Americans and Iraqi…

The old powers-that-be don’t want the truth about the Kent State Massacre to ever see the light of day. Others are determined to have that truth known and justice to be done. On part one, Laurel Krause, whose then-19 year old sister Allison was killed …

We all have images of the Ku Klux Klan as rabid terrorists. But the frightening reality is they were just average white men of the South. In his new book, Klansville USA, author and sociologist David Cunningham delves into the American cultural and poi…

A bill to help business create jobs, tax carbon, and save billions on disaster relief has been introduced by Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA). Here Darren Springer, Senator Sanders’ chief counsel, describes what it is and how it …

The military industrial complex is well aware of the power of Hollywood, that’s why they spend gobs of money to influence those productions. But artists will be artists and not all Hollywood productions satisfy the desires of the militaristic plutocrat…

It may sound fair, but in reality, “Fix the Debt” is the same folks as the bogus No Labels group. Depite the title, it’s not about cutting the deficit and reducing the debt, it’s really about rich people staying rich and siphoning all the public money …

The Cold War and Red Baiting of the 50s. America’s war in Vietnam. Civil rights and women’s equality. All would have been far different had the Democratic machine not replaced FDR’s vice president Henry Wallace with their own choice Harry Truman at the…

On the first half hour it’s Dan Kessler, spokesperson for the environmental group 350.org, discussing the upcoming Washington rally on February 17th to push Obama on the Keystone XL pipleine in specific and climate change in general. He needs the push!…

No one would have thought it possible. Prosecution in an international court would have been stunning enough. But now the amazing has happened: President Reagan’s buddy, Guatemala’s dictator in the early 80s, General Efrain Rios Montt is on trial for g…

On the first half, Marc Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research talks about a new report on how policies of the International Monetary Fund are affecting the people of Western Europe. Their policies are supposed to boost ec…

It used to be that homeless women over 50 were blessedly rare. Now it’s become the norm. San Francisco radio host Rose Aguilar went out on the streets and what she found should disturb all Americans.

And we thought the Libya war was tucked neatly away. It seems all those weapons, loosed from the old Qadaffi regime, are now set loose in the desert nation of Mali, a former French colony. French forces are on the ground and in the air, fighting agains…

The belief that the Second Amendment guarantees every individual the right to possess and carry any sort of gun anywhere is exceptionally recent. Guest on this show is Alternet senior fellow Stephen Rosenfeld, who has written a series of articles revea…

Super-weeds and super-insects? Thanks to chemical colossus Monsanto forcing farmers to inject their altered genes into corn and soy plants, there are powerful new highly resistant weeds and bugs out there. On January 10, organic farmers took their case…

Very few of us have heard of the US-Dakota War. It happened 150 years ago and ended with 38 Indians being hanged on December 26, 1862. Then it was erased from memory, for whites but not for the Dakota who stayed away from the scene of the horror, Manka…

Buying food at the supermarket is like flicking the switch to turn on the power: we don’t see it but it has a lot of impact on the environment, and on human health. Guest on this show is Danielle Nierenberg, co-founder of a new think tank called Foodta…

While some argue Christmas is really a religious Christian holiday, that’s just not the case. On this show, Burt’s guest is the Reverend Selena Fox, a Wiccan priestess, interfaith minister, environmentalist, Pagan elder, author, and lecturer in…

Most economists recognize the “fiscal cliff” as an invented crisis. High unemployment is the real problem, yet where is the political pressure on this? Today’s guest is Robert Pollin, professor of economics at UMAss Amherst and founding co-director of its hgily regarded Political Economy Research Institute (PERI). In his new book Back to Full Employment, Pollin argues our current preoccupation with the fiscal cliff is all wrong, and that our real national security requres a new focus on federal stimulation of  job growth. Let’s do what works!

My intended guest unintendingly created a surprise opportunity for a monologue on the Newtown massacre and what might be done now. Guest Bill Shireman, CEO of Future500, finally reached the radio studio halfway through this show. He proposes a six pron…

Not just the right wing plutocrats, but both parties now focus on cuts to solve the deficit and debt problem.Guest on this show is Roosevelt scholar David Woolner who points out why the opposite is needed: America should spend much more to stimulate de…

Congress has consistently passed the buck and now, instead of taking responsibility themselves, cuts across the board are threatened. Some, like Defense Secreatary Gates, have blamed entitilements, others, like today’s guest cites out of control spendi…

If you see the movie, you owe it to yourself to listen to this interview. Spielberg’s basic premise is false. What is true is that Lincoln’s presidency had a profound effect on the America we now live in, with so much power in the hands of a few corpor…